Wu Adds Salt to His Fish

A colorful fish ornament commemorates Mr. Wu's first heroic efforts to establish his new salt water aquarium.

The first fish I brought to Mr. Wu for his Christmas tree was a shimmering, almost orange-colored gold fish–the kind with the bulgy eyes, like a Pekingese pup dog. Mr. Wu used to have several of them swimming in his fish tank for a very long time. I liked them because they were really big and their eyes made them seem more animated, although their stares were a little on the glassy side. Certainly their peculiar vantage point gave them the right to be glassy eyed.

The most intriguing of the three fish had only one bulgy eye, and was fortunate to have that one, after an unfortunate brush with Mrs. Wu on the day she vacuumed the tank. Shoooop, went his eye, but he fared remarkably well without it, and it gave him a rakish bit of character.

Today I gave Mr. Wu a second ornament, one to commemorate his recent attempts to establish a salt water aquarium. I imagine that the hardest thing is getting one going, although I have never had the time, the money, or the patience to to so.

I do find aquariums extremely restful, especially the blubbling of the filters and the little motors that run them. My first experience with taking care of an aquarium was in Mrs. Glennie Clark’s fourth grade class room. Mrs. Clark lavished the exacting attentions of a research scientist on that small aquarium, and by golly those black mollies and those guppies lived model lives and would probably still be alive today, if only Mrs. Clark, one of my best teachers ever, was alive as well.